Flesh (theology)

In the Bible, the word "flesh" is often used simply as a description of the fleshy parts of an animal, including that of human beings, and typically in reference to dietary laws and sacrifice.

The word flesh (from the Old English flǣsc, of Germanic origin) is translated from the Hebrew lexemes בשר bāśār and שאר šə’êr, and from the Greek σάρξ (sarx) and κρέας (kreas).

(KJV)However, the (fourth century) Apostles' Creed affirms carnis resurrectionem (the resurrection of the flesh), the body being an essential part of a person.

It was in this sense that the nineteenth century critic Robert Buchanan condemned a Fleshly School of Poetry, accusing Swinburne, Rossetti, and Morris with preoccupation with sex and sensual matters.

But most of Christians also believe in the pre-existence of Christ from the eternity in a human-divine body which was generated by God the Father before all centuries and, more particularly, before the creation of Genesis 1.

Those statements are the truths of faith affirmed in the two dogmas of the Immaculate Conception and of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary to Heaven in body and soul.

In a complementary way, the Nicene Creed affirms that he was incarnated in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary by the work of the Holy Spirit God.